Reba took all of the pictures off the mantle piece and stacked them next to a cardboard box full of old men’s clothes. After throwing another tee-shirt on the fire she started popping the photos out of their frames, smoke from the burning cotton stung tears from her eyes. Meditatively, she tossed the photos into the fire and watched them curl and burn. Photos from her wedding, a snapshot from last year’s Christmas party and a couple of portraits of a tall, dark-haired young man. He was in all the pictures. Reba put them all into the fire. Her work was over in an hour. The box itself was burning when she picked up one of the empty frames and put a new photo in it, a photo of a short, redheaded fellow.